MP Brian Jean resigns to “concentrate on the things my constituents have told me are important to them”

Now there’s a surprising voice for some of these issues — Brian Jean, the former Conservative MP for Fort McMurray, who has just resigned from the Harper government.Redford won’t want him as a tour guide.

Freed from the caucus discipline, Jean says he can now “concentrate on the things my constituents have told me are important to them.”

And what concerns them, he says, is deteriorating quality of life because of rapid development.

“It seems like we are trying to get every bit (of oil) out of the ground right away, but the oil isn’t going anywhere,” he told the Edmonton Journal.

“Do we need to do it at the cost of people’s lives?”

Jean said what everybody up there knows; the community is jammed, with services for far fewer residents than the current population of 77,000.It’s time, finally, to follow the late Lougheed’s advice.

There should be a pause on approval of new projects until the province can catch up with problems stemming from development and rising emissions.

Another sure way to cut emissions quickly, according to the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, is to phase out coal.

The group says Alberta burns more coal than all other provinces combined, and this produces emissions roughly equal to all those from the oilsands.

These physicians say coal emissions contribute to more than 100 deaths annually, as well as many asthma attacks and emergency visits.

Phasing out coal would be costly and could drive up power prices; the companies would deserve compensation. But the benefits to Alberta’s environmental performance would be huge.

I think this just goes to show all of the so-called "left-wing", that not all conservatives share Harper's globalist agenda. The left vs right smokescreen is severely flawed, and a tool of division. There are good and bad MPs on both sides. The sports like "team aspect" of politics is frankly embarrassing.

So I applaud Mr. Jean for doing what he's paid to do even in the face of clearly unrelenting forces. This is extremely significant.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for eQube gaming systems.

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.